da fezbet： Stephen Fleming, who has been one of the few batsmen to succeed in theconditions prevalent at the Champions Trophy in India, said that it wascrucial for batsmen to spend time out in the middle
Anand Vasu in Mumbai19-Oct-2006
Spending time in the middle is the key to the conditions, says Stephen Fleming © Getty Images
Stephen Fleming, who has been one of the few batsmen to succeed in theconditions prevalent at the Champions Trophy in India, said that it wascrucial for batsmen to spend time out in the middle. “Occupying the creaseis one of the solutions to overcome the conditions here…spending timein the middle,” he said. “You need someone at the top to play that sort ofan innings. I think in these conditions it gives you a better chance toassess the score that’s needed, you have to be little more circumspect inthese conditions.”But Fleming also did not lay undue importance on the toss. “We cannot getinto the match with a preconceived idea that if you lose the toss, youlose the match. You have to be stronger than that,” he said, when speakingto the media in a pre-match briefing. Always a strong leader, Fleming chose to look forward with optimism. “We are one step closer to the semi-finals should we win tomorrow’s match,” he said. “The biggest worry is that we have been inconsistent in big tournaments, so we want to put together a series of games, not only to get us throughto the semifinal, but also to win the competition.”You cannot pick and choose games to win. We have got a side to win themall. We don’t want to be the perennial dark horses of any competition. Wewant to start performing consistently and the next challenge is againstSri Lanka.”Sri Lanka, for their part, were confident that they could put the setbackagainst Pakistan behind them, and continue their quest for glory. “We havereviewed our performance against Pakistan and we are still confident inthis competition and will go into the match against New Zealand withconfidence knowing that we have had only one hiccup,” Tom Moody, SriLanka’s coach said. “We need to bounce back. The team is still carrying themomentum of winning many matches on the trot.”Moody also defended Sri Lanka’s decision to sport a seam-based attackdespite the conditions. “The logic of going in with [four pacemen] is thatwe won ten games in a row doing that. But that’s not to say that we willgo into tomorrow’s match with the same formula of four speedsters,” hesaid. “We have the luxury of a batsman like Sanath Jayasuriya who can beregarded as a second spinner and also Dilshan, who bowls offspin. Itgives us the flexibility to play the extra strike bowler or the extrabatsman. It gives the chance to improve the depth in batting or bowling.”